8:00: Welcome to part 3 of the Monster Saturday Running Diary. I’m running on fumes here, I’m going to try to give you some good information. First, some final scores from early: Miami 24 Ohio St 36, Florida St 17 Oklahoma 47 (Mark Stoops fix!), Iowa won, Air Force won, Utah won and California won. This late slate of television consists of Oregon at Tennessee, Penn St. at Alabama, LSU at Vanderbilt and the movie Hitch (it’s a good movie.)
8:15: Alabama has been in firm control of this game, not a surprise to me. Penn St. was close to bringing it to within a touchdown but then there was a crazy sequence of fumbles that is way to hard to explain so I’ll leave it at that. Meanwhile, Oregon and Tennessee are in a lightning delay. This is like the 3rd time I can remember this happening ever.
8:18: Trent Richardson is gashing this Penn St. defense. He will be a better pro than his teammate Mark Ingram.
8:21: This game features the oldest referee ever. He makes Lee Corso look young. Alabama is up 17-0. And what do you know, Tennessee and Oregon are still in a delay. So ESPN2 is kind enough to give us bonus coverage of LSU and Vanderbilt.
8:24: Upset watch! Wyoming has a 7-6 lead on Texas.
8:28: Strong run by Texas runningback Foswhitt Whittaker for the touchdown. Broke 4 tackles on his way there. Texas needed an answer and they got one.
8:34: Arkansas leads Louisiana-Monroe 7-0 at half. I expected Arkansas to be putting up a lot more points in this game. They have a pretty dynamic offense. I might need to flip to this one in the second half to check it out.
8:37: 17-0 Alabama leads at halftime. Erin Andrews is interviewing Joe Paterno. Has there ever been 2 people involved in an interview who look less alike? I don’t think so. Well, any Michael Jackson interview after 2000 is right up there.
8:42: Texas scores again and leads 20-7 at halftime. Mack Brown is sweaty. I figured you should know.
8:44: Hey! Oregon and Tennessee are playing again. Tennessee is up 6-3. Crowd is pretty riled up. I expect Oregon to eventually turn this one into a blow out.
8:54: Ummm, that blow out might not be the way it turns out. It turns out Oregon can’t stop the run. Tennessee scores and now leads 13-3. Time to check out Arkansas. Ryan Mallett is a dark horse Heisman Candidate. If Arkansas can put together a good season he could be in contention come November.
8:57: The Razorbacks had to punt on their first possession of the 2nd half. I’m very surprised.
9:00: Alabama kicking off to start the 2nd half. Penn St. absolutely needs a score on their opening drive to stay in this game.
9:09: Arkansas finally gets another touchdown, and Penn St. freshman quarterback Robbie Bolden threw a crucial interception. Tough situation for a freshman quarterback to be in.
9:18: Alabama can’t get anything going on offense. Penn St. NEEDS to capitalize. But they don’t. Dropped passes on 3rd downs are killers.
9:23: Oregon kicks another field goal, 13-6 Tennessee leads. I’m shocked with this score. Oregon’s offense was dynamite last week. Now it’s like a fire sparkler.
9:32: Alabama running some offense out of the Pistol. 5 years ago when I jumped on the Nevada bandwagon everyone thought I was crazy. Now every team uses the Pistol. It’s an innovative and effective formation. I knew this long before you did.
9:44: Oregon and Tennessee are tied at 13 going into half time. Things might be turning the ducks way.
9:52: Just so everyone knows, in my first 2 weeks of picking college football games with the spread on Yahoo Sports, I’m 16-13… Not sure if that is good or bad.
9:55: Penn St. is finally on the board with a field goal. 24-3 Alabama leads with under 10 to go. In more important news, the WNBA finals are starting tomorrow at 3 p.m. Very nice of ABC to put that crucial game on the same Sunday as the first week of NFL. I wonder how tough of a decision it was to take a Lost re-run out of that time slot.
10:05: Oregon and Tennessee are back to action. This game is going to be the one that carries the running diary down the home stretch.
10:14: Alabama wins easily 24-3. That was a dominant performance, which was to be expected.
10:20: Best run of the day so far. LaMichael James reverses his field, breaks a few tackles and out runs everyone. 72 yard touchdown run. Blow out is a potential outcome once again.
10:27: Tennessee is driving on Oregon. I don’t like Tennessee, but love the fight song. There is something about Rocky Top that appeals to me.
10:30: Yupp, I knew this was going to end up a blowout. Oregon pick six, Tennessee is crapping their pants.
10:37: I miss Jeremiah Massoli and LeGarrette Blount playing for Oregon. Had to be the worst role model backfield in recent college football history. That’s like if Mike Vick and Travis Henry ever played for the same team.
10:39: Another game is on, how weird. UCLA hosts Stanford. I would be much more interested in this game if Toby Gerhart was playing. If he would have been drafted by any team but Minnesota I would have pursued buying his jersey.
10:48: God! I just realized I missed all of Hitch on TBS! That bums me out. Such a good movie. On the bright side, we got Virginia visiting USC. However this game doesn’t matter considering everything USC does for this year will end up not really happening. You know, because they cheated? The Heisman should have belonged to Vince Young right from the start, then he proved it in the Rose Bowl, and now he should be rewarded for it. I just need to say, I love this concept that when a school does something wrong in the course of the season the NCAA decides it never happened. Technically, players like Reggie Bush and Derrick Rose never played college sports. Imagine if everything was like that. Would we even acknowledge that George W. Bush was President or would we just assume we mysteriously ended up trillions of dollars in debt?
10:55: Oregon touchdown, 21 point lead now. I never doubted this would be a blowout!
10:58: Yumm, I love the taste of Pink Ladies in my mouth… Apples you perverts!
11:02: Oregon punt return for touchdown. 41-13 the Quack Attack leads! Man was I right on with the blowout prediction.
Well since Oregon has this game in control, and the USC game is technically not happening, I’m going to call it a night. A few closing thoughts:
1. Boise St. is really going to end up getting the shaft. They are going to go 12-0 and miss out on a chance for a BCS title because Virginia Tech crapped the bed against James Madison today. They are going to go on to beat a BCS conference school in another BCS bowl, and the same story will occur next year. This team needs to get some respect. Frankly, I would take them over any team in the country.
2. The ACC is really struggling. I thought this would be a huge year for the ACC. I thought Miami, Florida St., Virginia Tech, North Carolina and Georgia Tech would all be ultra competitive this year. It turns out none of them have a winning record as of right now.
3. I saw a number of Heisman Trophy candidates today. Terrelle Pryor, DeMarco Murray, Trent Richardson, LaMichael James and the most impressive player of the day, Denard Robinson.
Overall, today was a successful day. But tomorrow is a new day, and I am even more excited for the start of NFL. No running diaries tomorrow. It’s all pleasure tomorrow. So I leave you with one question:
ARE YOU READY FOR MORE FOOTBALL?
